Punch for statistical cards



Oct. 25, 1932.

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attoumq Patented Oct. 25, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE v WILLIAM W. LASKER, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS,

TO REMINGTON RAN D INQ, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE PUNCH FOR STATISTICAL CARDS Application filed August 27, 1925, Serial No. 52,767. Renewed February 26, 1932.

The present invention relates to key controlled punches for preparing statistical cards and it has for its object to provide such a punch with visual indicating means where- 5 by the operator of the machine may verify the correctness of the set-up produced by the ke s.

To this end the invention consists of certain features of construction and certain comto binations and arrangements of parts all of which will be fully set forth herein and par ticularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings Fig. 1 represents a fragmental elevation of one unit 15 of an adding, printing and punching mechanism embodying one form of the present invention; and Fig. 2 represents a detail in part section of the punch set-up mechanism.

Referring to the drawings, one unit of an adding printing tabulating machine is shown by way of example of the type which 18 usually operated by perforated record cards having number carrying rack bars, type wheels controlled thereby, and an accumulator mechanism whereby totals are taken of the card groups tabulated. It will be understood that there are as many rack number bars and adjuncts therefor as there are columns in the record card but in the following description a single unit only is referred to for the sake of brevity and clearness. The tabulation of the record card data is made by means of a platen common to all of the units and operating in conjunction with the paper 11, which is fed from a roll 12, to print the successive items in the required manner.

For making a type set-up a pinion 13 is rotatably mounted on the type wheel shaft 1 1 and meshes with a rack 15 on the rack number bar 16 of the unit under consideration. This rack number bar 16 carries the number block 17 by which the selected digit is brought to registering indicating position, and its position is determined by settable register stops 18, which are numbered respectively and consecutively from zero to nine. As there is a bar or member 16 for each denomination, and each can be set differentially according to the digit to be punched, these bars may be called denominational differential members. These stops 18 are arranged in a row alined with and below the bar 16 with the zero stop in the path of and engaged by a lug 20 on the bar 16 so that the rack bar 16 is normally retained in its zero position. The lifting of any digit stop 18 causes the rack bar 16 to be released from the zero stop so that the bar 16 can move until its lug 20 abuts the lifted or set stop 18.

Movement of the rack bar 16 to operative position takes place by means of a spring 21 stretched between a fixed strip 22 and a hook 23 on the end of the bar 16, and movement in the opposit direction to return the bar 16 to normal or zero position takes place through the action of a restoring rod 24 carried by a bell crank frame 25 pivoted at 26 and connected to an operating link 27 which receives its motion from a cam or any other suitable timing device, here deemed unnecessary to illustrate- As is well understood the rod 24 must move the bars 16 one step beyond zero to restore the racks that effected transfers. to their non-transferring position shown in Fig. 1.

In order to accumulate the amounts set-up and printed by the movement of the rack bar 16, it carries an accumulating rack 30 as a separate element which is arranged to move with the bar 16 and also relative thereto by means of a slot 31 and pin 32 connection and a spring 33 under tension between a hook 3 1 of the rack 30 and a hook 35 of the bar 16. The rack 30 and the bar 16 move together in order that the desired accumulation P can be rolled in and move relative to each other in order to carry over from one accumulator wheel to the neXt. The rack 30 is guided through a comb 36 and has a slot 37 provided with a shoulder 38 to receive a carry pin 40 which normally seats against the shoulder 38 but when released allows the rack 30 to move under the action of the spring 38 to the distance of one tooth, as will be un- M derstood, so that the desiredcarry is made. The carry pin 40 projects laterally from a pivoted carry pawl member 41 having its pawl 12 in position to be actuated by a carry cam 13 of a pinion 44c of an accumulator 1 wheel 15. The pinion 44 and wheel 45 are loosely mounted on the common shaft &6 for all of the accumulator wheels and a timed rocking movement is transmitted to the shaft 46 by a suitable mechanism in order to bring a} the pinion 44 into and out of mesh with the rack 30 in the required manner for rolling in an accumulation. The pinion 1a is held against improper rotation by a detent 47 upon a rock arm 18 which is held in operative position by a spring 50 stretched between a hook 51 of the arm and a fixed pin 52. The carry. pawl member 11 is temporarily locked in carry position by a retaining lever 58 pivoted at 5 1 and under tension by a spring 55 to snap under a fixed latch bar 56 when the carry pawl 42 is shifted by the carry cam a8. In Fig. 1 the rack 80, accumulator pinion 1 1 and pawl 11 may be those of any order except the highest, and the pin 40 cooperates with a shoulder 38 of the next higher order rack.

For the purpose of causing the aforesaid printing and accumulating mechanisms to function while also causing a card to be punched to correspond to the data printed and added at one operation the stops 18 are mounted for vertical sliding movement and pass through openings 57 in a reciprocable latch bar 58 which. is shifted to unlatched position by cam catches 60 respectively on the stops 18. Selection and setting of the stops 18 is made, in the present instance, by a finger 61 projecting from one arm of a bell-crank 62 which is pivoted at 68 to the frame 64: and has its other arm in the path of movement of a lever 65. A spring 66 is connected under tension from the bell-crank 62 to a pin 67 on the frame 64 in order to return the bellcrank 62 after a setting stroke so that it is substantially in abutting relation with re spect to the lever 65. The lever is pivoted at 68 to the frame 6 1 and has an arm 70 pivoted to a punch set-up pin 71 which is normally held in retracted position by a spring 72 under tension between said pin 71 and a fixed pin 73 on the frame 64. The frame 6 1 forms a part of a carriage 7 A1 mounted on wheels 7 5 to travel step by step across the set-up unit 76 of the punch unit 77, in order to select the set-up bar 78 desired. While only four of the pins 71 are shown it is to be understood that there is usually provided a row of twelve such pins corresponding to the twelve numbered keys in Fig. 2.

While the setup unit and punching mech anism may be of many different forms, the preferred form is that shown in my U. S. Letters Patent No. 1,307,682, June 2 1, 1919, and to which reference can be had for details not deemed essential to here describe. Generally the construction comprises set-up bars 78 slidably mounted in a fixed frame 80 and suitably notched to form a cam acting latch 81 for shifting a latch plate 82 so that any selected bar 78 will be held down to rigidly project its alined pin 83, against the tension of a spring 8 1, into engagement with the head of a punch 85. The punchers 85 are similarly arranged and correspond to the number and arrangement of the set-bars 78 and enter a reciprocable register plate 86 forming one side of a card passage 87 the opposite side of which is formed by a similarly reciprocable die plate 88. Both plates '86 and 88 are simultaneously reciprocated to bring the card in the passage against the punches 85 and those punches not held by the set-up will be moved with the card while those held by the set-up will perforate the card in the required manner and arrangement.

In order to selectively control the operation of the punch set-up pins 71, a keyboard 90 is provided having keys 91 respectively arranged to move rods 92, such as piano wire encased in flexible tubes93. The tubes 93 enter a slotted part at of the frame 64 and are held by set screws 95 and the rods 92 are thus brought into operative abutting relati on with the respective levers 65 so that the pressing down of any key 91 causes its rod 92 to move in the direction of its length to swing its lever 65 about the pivot 68 to set the pin 71 corresponding to the key pressed. Thus if the key representing the number 1 is pressed the parts controlled by that key are moved and the pin 71 in register with the punch corresponding to the number 1 will make a set-up so that the 1 position in the card column will be perforated.

In order to also make a printing and an accumulation operation by the actuation of the keys 91 the bell-cranks 62 respectively have arms 96 located in the respective paths of the levers 65 so that the actuation of any of the levers 65 will cause the swinging of the cooperating bell-crank 62 to raise its finger 61 and thereby lift the alined stop 18 to locked position in the path of its number bar 16. The upward movement of the selected stop 18 lifts the bar 16 out of engagement with the zero stop 18 so that the bar 16 is released and free to travel to the selected stop position. This movement of the released bar 16 is transmitted to the pinion 13 to bring its printing wheel to the position corresponding to the set stop 18, and the position of the bar 16 in its new rest position locates the number, on the block 17, corresponding to the set stop 18, opposite the sight slot of the machine. During this movement of the bar 16, the accumulator pinion 4415 held out of mesh with the track 30 but is automatically swung into mesh therewith at the beginning of the return stroke of the bar 16 in order to roll in the desired accumulation.

It will now be apparent that a complete unitary printing, adding and punching mechanism has been devised whereby blank rec- 0rd cards can be punched in accordance with collected data while incidental to the punching operation there is a corresponding printing of the data upon a record strip and means whereby such data can be added and accumulated throughout a group of cards being punched. In this way the printed items made incidental to card punching become a check upon the punching and verify the figures or account amounts directly without the necessity of a verifying run of the punched cards in a tabulating machine. In addition the verifying printing of the amounts punched, the accumulation unit will add the amount punched on each card and accumulate the total amount of cards punched so that there is an agreement and check with and upon the account amount verifying figures. Thus the mechanism of the present invention greatly simplifies the handling of perforated record cards, reduces the chance of error due to incorrect punching since it provides an immediate check upon the punching, and eliminates one or more runs of the cards according to the data and its grouping and sorting.

While only a single form is shown in which this invention may be embodied, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to any specific construction, but might be applied to various forms without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a mechanism of the character stated, the combination of a punch set-up mechanism, a plurality of selecting pins arranged to eo-operate with said set-up mechanism, a plurality of control bars, visible verifying indicators respectively carried by said bars, stop devices for locating the respective bars in predetermined positions, a plurality of control keys, and common means controlled by said keys for selecting certain of said pins and setting certain of said stop devices whereby each bar operated sets its indicator to correspond to the associated pin selected.

2. In a mechanism of the character stated, the combination of a punch set-up mechanism and a plurality of control units, each unit consisting of a punch set-up selecting pin, a bar and a visible verifying indicator, a plurality of keys forming a control keyboard and means controlled by said keys for respectively actuating said units whereby each punch set-up is visibly verified by a character on its indicator corresponding to the key operated.

3. In a mechanism of the character stated, the combination of a punch set-up mechanism, a plurality of keys, movable control bars, an indicator mounted on each control bar and having characters thereon corresponding respectively to said keys, a row of stops mounted adjacent each control bar and arranged when set to locate the control bars in predetermined positions, and means selectively operated by said keys for actuating said set-up mechanism and said stops whereby the character corresponding to the key operated is visible upon one of said indicators.

4. In a mechanism of the character stated, a plurality of control bars, a plurality of keys, an indicator mounted on each control bar and having characters thereon corresponding respectively to said keys, a plurality of rows of stops, one for each control bar, a punch set-up mechanism, a row of selecting pins mounted and arranged to move step-by-step into register with the respective rows of stops, means for act rating said pins rom said keys, and means 0 aerated by said actuating means for setting a stop in each row whereby the respective control bars are located to visibly display the characters on said indicators corresponding to the keys 0perated.

5. In a perforating machine having a sin gle set of keys and a carriage that moves stepby-step as the keys are operated, the combination with punching devices brought successively under the control of the keys by the setting of the carriage, of denominational differential devices each carrying a visual indicator also brought successively under the control of the keys by the stepping of the carriage, and means whereby a stroke of a key controls the appropriate punch and at the same time controls the setting of the corresponding difierential device.

Signed at New York, county of New York, -tate of New York, this 21st day of August,

WILLIAM W. LASKER. 

